After reading a few posts this morning, especially the one about the success ajohnson and hayabusa on their OSCE exam, I felt I should "Try Harder" and work on a cert early in 2013.

But then, I realized I felt this way because I was reading about these success stories on this web site! That, in turn, made me realized that I have pushed myself a lot more because of EthicalHacker.net.

So here is the reason why I love this discussion forum:

1) It keeps me motivated!!! Reading about the other member's stories puts me in perspective with the rest of the world. I may be good at some things but I lack big time on others. So for me, looking at the others help me set new goals and objectives. But above all, seeing others succeed help me think that me too, I can achieve something...

2) It makes me feel I am not alone. We are almost all in the same boat: we study alone at home with barely anyone understanding what we do. After a while, I feel I am the only one on earth reading computer books, so seeing that I am not the only one busting my ass kind of makes me feel better. :P

3) Tips We all get good tips and help on this site. That's of great value too!

So that's it for me. Thanks again Don for this site. I wanted to highlight that I get way more than advice from your site: I get the motivation to keep pushing forward.

Last edited by caissyd on Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Those are good observations, H1tM0nk3y. This is generally the time of year when I reflect back, as well, and the informative threads, here, are often motivators for me, as too.

In honesty, while I've never met ANY of the folks here, outside of the threads, or PM's, or in some cases, Instant Messenger, I have closer friends here than many of my personal friends, because here, there are folks who understand where my head's at. That isn't to say everyone here is 'close', but it's a place where you can learn, you can have intelligent conversations, and if you get off course, you can actually be 'schooled' (which sometimes becomes necessary to keep us focused and on track.)

As a lot of us found, early, there aren't 'many' places / forums, online or otherwise, where we can interact on the levels that EH-Net affords us, on a regular basis. Personally, the area where I live is a minimum of an hour (generally more) from any larger metropolitan areas, so 'professional networking' opportunities don't come often, especially with family time and my job (that's right, I don't work in infosec for a full-time living, but rather, it's a side venture. Often wish it WAS full-time, and perhaps, when the stars align in a couple of years - long, unnecessary side story - it will be). So EH-Net becomes my landing place, to wind down, share information, get perspectives, and just regain a little focus, in general.

But, long-winded post coming to an end, I agree. don has a good thing going here.

Last edited by hayabusa on Thu Dec 27, 2012 9:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

~ hayabusa ~

"All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved." - Sun Tzu, 'The Art of War'

It's posts like this that in turn motivates me to keep doing what I do. We're all open, honest and helpful here on EH-Net... at least that's the type of community I've always strived to create and maintain. This thread shows me that my efforts continue to work. It's often that a project takes on a life of its own, and the original intent goes astray. I'm proud that we've kept something going here that is not just a technical resource but also a career minded community of helpful people.

In light of you being honest, I must also admit that there are times that I lose the energy. There's a lot to running this site from getting content, prizes, advertisers, do promotion, make appearances... it's a lot. Sometimes it only feels like I'm here to "make the donuts."

Then I look around and see threads like this one, and it reignites the fire under my a$$.

So thank you. And I mean that honestly. I don't make a million bucks running this site. But I've become rich is so many other ways. Sounds quaint, but it's the truth.

They are like Pokemon... Gotta Catch 'Em All! I have a problem, I really do. Is there a Certaholics Anonymous? (CA - Infosec Acronym Collision Alert!)

But seriously this is one of the friendliest, most helpful communities I've been a privilege of being part of and EH.net attracts real professionals, not the script kiddie havens that so many other forums boast. Sure we have some of those as well, but the guys I admire and respect in the industry show up here from time to time and I've learned so much from you guys. I'm proud to be a member of this community, and have even referenced it in job interviews where people in the know gained respect for me from that relationship as well. The free training doesn't hurt either

A decade or so ago I was a newsie and hardware reviewer for a prominent PC Mod forum called pimprig.com (I went by another name I won't mention here but if you really want to dox me have fun at archive.org because that site fell off the net years ago) famous for the awesome Caffeine Machine coffeemaker PC. I was also active in several other overclocking, gaming and sysadmin type forums. But I have to say hands down that this is the most awesome and open forum for learning I've found. That's saying a lot because I've been fortunate enough to find some really great communities on the web. I'm here for the long haul. I may go inactive for a couple weeks at a time as priorities realign but I always come back here.

For those of you new to EH.net and wondering if it's worth it to stick around, if you are looking for a career in the technical aspects of security, especially in security testing don't even second guess it. This is where you want to be. Don't overlook the other awesome communities like the PDC mailing lists, intern0t, OWASP and elsewhere but you will always be welcome here as long as you can be respectful and ethical in your quest for knowledge.

It's posts like this that in turn motivates me to keep doing what I do.

Well, it's forum like this one that motivates me to keep posting!

Another thing I really like, is that you don't feel stupid asking a question on EthicalHacker.net. Even if the answer is in the previous post, nobody makes you feel bad about it.

I am like Hayabusa, I don't work full time yet in information security. But the better I become, the more chances for it to happen. But I do get little contracts here and there, so I try to stay focus on my goal.

I have almost been away from EH.net for a year after failing an exam (I have never failed an exam with a mark below 60%, but when you need 70%...). So I was very disappointed at one point... But I passed the GWAPT certification last November and now, I am back on track! I have invested a lot of money and effort in training and I can't wait for it to pay off. But like for anything worth in life, we have to be patient...

So all that to say, this is a great site. Thanks again Don, this site is bigger than all of us now!

Tossing my hat in the ring. I love this place for the friends I've made, on line. it was great to meet some of them in the real world. (YAY! Bsides-Chicago and DerbyCon, grrcon fell through, no phone signal to meet up with the person).

The thing I like the most, I get to find out about the neat little challenges (like the Christmas, and Halloween ones), even though I don't have to time to play with them. It's nice being able to read through the answers at the end, and gain a little skill that way. Since I'm working mostly in network design and auditing designs now, this forum is one of the two ways I keep my fingers in the technical pie.

We probably don't say it enough, but thank you Don, for everything you do.

What I like about this site is the maturity. It's nice to read discussions and tips without having to filter out flame wars and trolls. I'm a security enthusiast (and a sysadmin by trade), working towards someday getting into the pentesting gig. Like H1t M0nk3y, it keeps me motivated to keep learning and pushing myself.

This site is great, and one of the things I like most is the fact I feel comfortable asking questions and know that I will not get flamed. I still consider myself new to the field, and I was always hesitant to post in past forums as I would see how others would get shot-down quickly or told to go somewhere else - that has never happened here

The motivation I get from the forums has been huge for me. Since I've been a member here, I've taken and passed both the eCPPT and GSEC certs, and had the direction/courage to switch to a new job! I'm not working in a full-time security job yet, but I'm on my way